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Souls Alighting (C)+
This is the Souls Alighting author access page using the world building template provided by Kittyspace for developmental purposes. It is spoiler heavy, but might at least be slightly more reader friendly than the character sheets. Summary Information Souls Alighting has a scope set between three nations of a peninsula sightly larger than Great Britain and Ireland. Most of the action takes place within towns and cities of this sub-continent. There is travel between the various countries and political unrest, that is witnessed and influenced by the protagonists as they split up and explore different parts of the land. Overarching plans from shadowy organizations are at play, and there is a deep history involving a recent war and an ancient cataclysm involving countries to the east. The boundary to the east is unlikely to be crossed within the confines of this story, and to the west, is literally the Atlantic Ocean, though the boundary is circular and can be found with a sufficient sea voyage. Gods exist, specifically two of them, the associated mythos comes to the foreground as legendary armies and cursed bloodlines mobilise. The reader's perspective will flit between the protagonists in such a way as to limit the information they have access to to only being slightly greater than said protagonists. The protagonists are a band of twelve heroes mainly originating from a small island severed from the mainland during the war, who find themselves harassed by High Kingdom forces upon trying to return a princess of said kingdom. There is Zacharias, a short, quiet descendant of the mightiest hero who ever lived, who by no means measures up, but is an amazing leader and strategic fighter. Paul, a magical swordsman bred from war refugees, and stalwart, if loud, companion to Zacharias, and his twin sisters, Terri, a hunter, and Tina, a mage. Both are quite... colourful. The next members to join are an old knight with a........ backstory, and a gifted, kind and extremely intelligent necromancer, struggling with his post genocide identity. Renata, the princess, is found struggling to subsist in decidedly unprincessy conditions, but is determined to ignore that fact. Argus, a boatman with a mechanical arm and a fatherly nature initially tries to halt the party's progress, but comes around, his son Damian, does likewise, but in a far more dangerous and extravagant way. The final members of the group are Mark, a famous gladiator with a horrifying history and unusual powers, Nicolas, an estranged friend of Paul and one of the most gifted mages of the age, though blind, and his sister, Freida, a swordsman whom shares an extremely powerful bond of protection with her brother. Ethan and Val are droll merchants. They provide comic relief as well as genuine help, being the few characters consistently on the heroes' side. Gawain and the Lightningers, including Bertrand, a double agent second in command, a large cleric, Clair, and yet unnamed pair of youngsters, are light users on the chaotic and good end of the scale, they get to be consistent allies in the shadows. There are maybe twenty Lightningers at most. The royal guards preferred to hide away than follow the king's orders or get into danger, as did the rest of the High Kingdom army The Steward, and the rest of Renata's servants, are generally good, normal people. The steward in particular is a brave and noble man, held back by his old fashioned beliefs and thus hated. The groundskeeper becomes a friend to Zacharias, who in actuality replaces him. Paul's mother Elaine heads the Paladins, and is in general a lovely person. Paul befriends 30 or so paladins during his time on the mount, including his good friends Siegfried, a burly, brash guy with a warhammer, and Charlemagne, a bespectacled, lance wielding long range specialist. All thirty of them are assigned to individual masters, all of whom bear suspicious similarity to their apprentices. Paul's master is Lancelot, the light sage. The council of the restitution are five expert wizards, one of whom is the sage of wind, and all of whom are teachers and researchers caring for the needs of about 40 young mages. Among these mages are Herschel's protegees, eight dark wizards including a particularly skilled dark-fire mage (name him later), Tina also has one or two mages that she favours, one of whom is a wind mage, more details later. Other named mages might be the one or two light mages who don't want to be paladins. The wind and fire sages are the only two remaining from the older generation, and are generally nice. The antagonists... have never seen the light of text... till today... The mother and father of Zacharias, Eliza and Zagorn, are bonded irrevocably to a godly being capable of, and planning to, put an end to the world and rebuild it from scratch. These three are all immortals, and very experienced and powerful. Eliza in particular has strayed from that path and has decided to use the long dead of the current world to forge an empire inhabited only by immortals with power and intelligence. She has been manipulating, killing, and resurrecting important political figures to that end. Among those figures is the son of an Emperor, who ends up being the most dangerous antagonist bound by mortality, though four out of the six sages also ally with this cause. The gods themselves fight against this indiscriminately, and the antagonist's antagonist is also an antagonist. Behind all of this is a third level of antagonist, unnoticed by most, against whom both groups of antagonists are both attempting to fight a losing battle. The truth of the world is concealed within this being. Lord Antonius of the Dragonguard was taken under control by Eliza and forced to kill his wife and child. His resistance to her orders are entirely valiant, but he never encounters the heroes in a non antagonistic manner. Poor guy. King Leon is in the same boat, he never was the same after he lost his wife and brothers though, so put up little resistance. For the record, the old king was simply a man with a missing friend, and started a war to find him. Unaffiliated parties. These are people who followed their own agendas throughout the story and do not fit the protagonist/antagonist section, having fought both at times. The guildmaster just wants to protect his guild, his town, and his reputation. He eventually assists the group. The four horsemen are pure mercenaries, showing up throughout the story, as effective, but usually comically underpowered allies or enemies. The two assassins might survive the Porthold arc if they are necessary later in the story, but aren't designed to be loved. Two dragonguard guards at Starbhold, who might have relented except for the renegade. A second pair in Highcliff have the same response, though kinder. There are about three squadrons of 20 Dragonguard under Victor, the second in command, and a very intelligent and giving man. They won't kill the heroes just for being there, and try their hardest to only kill Mark. Ignatius is one of the lieutenants of the dragonguard, and the most fun to be around. He's a hot blooded hero who develops a rivalry with Nicolas, and the most powerful of all the dragons. Each other squad has a similar captain, but they aren't as notable, though not under-estimable. The other five are under Antonius in Highcliff, they are the worse fighters. Some dead people, the first ones we meet are Balor, a high ranking chaos lord from an ancient order, who is quiet but has an excellent sense of humour, Crysta, a High Kingdom saint who is absolutely adorable, and her good friend, a warrior princess from an Old Kingdom tribe, who is exactly as rough and lewd as one might expect. These are members of a real army, which also includes a yet unnamed former suitor of Eliza, who is her second in command, and his rough guard squad. The Side characters. Never actually fought, but need to be mentioned anyway. Johan and his companion, two old men who are the bane of Tina's life, residents of Jacob's village. Jacob, Paul, Tina and Terri's father, a companion of Zagorn and a priest who forms a village out of refugees from the war. Lord Madrass, an old important man who was turned to stone before the events of the story, along with the High Kingdom regent's wife, and at least 40 assorted noble ladies and soldiers, the ladies of which raised Renata. Argus's wife is dead by the time they arrive in Porthold, but was very caring, The Conflict At its core, the entire plot can be summarized as a conflict between humans, and... a certain being, lasting an incomprehensibly long amount of time. However, until right at the end of the story, the conflict manifests as human fighting human. Why does the conflict happen? Boiled right down to its base parts, our story comes down to vengeance. Vengeance is the key motivator in the plot of Souls Alighting and its sequels. The reason that the conflict is occurring at all is a quirk of space. A mindless being of incomprehensible yet finite power, just happens to arrive in this dimension at this point and locate life, which happens to be sentient. It responds according to its programming and makes an enemy. This enemy is represented as Zagorn and Eliza, who make their own enemies in the form of the gods of worlds long dead, though acquiring not nearly so much hatred as their boss. It is unfortunate that their plan involves so much death, but supposedly unavoidable. All that time spent waiting for something to happen, and when it does, you just run with it. The actions of those gods, over merely millennial timescales, governs rises and falls of empires, and war, and madness. One such war cripples the allies of humanity, who were wearing thin enough as is, but fortunately were reaching the completion of their plan in any case. Unfortunately, the being they were opposing was also reaching a climax at that time. Suddenly, within a couple of years all of this reached a turning point, on the shoulders of twelve mortal men. An estranged princess held captive on an island, she and her comrades finding themselves on a mainland where they are attacked by the High Kingdom to hide the results of the final day of the war. Resolving the conflict personally, the allies make their move, a violent one that separates the heroes and causes death. The Empire takes up the burden and begins a grand conquest that leads to the interference of the gods themselves. This happens over the course of a year. Within this rise and fall of empires, within the blood-soaked battlefields of genocides long passed, within one place where wise men decreed... NO MORE, and became a mindless memory, one young boy, cursed to his very soul by a force was beyond any human's comprehension, and one that was not, watches his father die as a result of his inaction. Vengeance, there has to be a reason for this death. Zacharias seeks it out. Through Zacharias, eleven other protagonists find a reason to fight, and follow him, along with their own dreams. Scene by scene outline. * Zacharias and Zagorn are introduced. Zacharias fights off some goblins. * Zacharias's backstory is presented, he has never left the forest. Some of Zagorns motives are revealed. The father and son team annihilates a huge force of goblins, emphasis on Zagorn, but after Zacharias suffers a headache mid-combat, Zagorn takes a scratch from a goblin's spear whilst trying to save him, then runs off. * Zacharias chases Zagorn to a beautiful goblin village, where he dies from aconite poisoning. Zacharias suffers another headache, and is left surrounded by otherwise peaceful goblins. * In the village, Tina is teased about her marital status and destructiveness by some old men. Terri snoozes in a watchtower, while Paul patrols ineffectually below, at the gate. Zacharias arrives, injured pursued by goblins, whom Paul slays, but not after connecting with Zacharias, who he initially thinks is a bandit. * Zacharias meets the twins, Terri and Tina. Terri informs him that Paul is outnumbered by goblins, and the two persuade him to help. * The three arrive in the nick of time to help Paul, whom was forced to use his light magic to fight, something which he had been avoiding, for the sake of an injured friend. * The four walk through the village, introducing themselves and describing magic to Zacharias. * Zacharias meets Paul and the twins' father, Jacob the priest, in the church. He presents Zacharias with an inheritance of ten magic stones, one of which Terri has pilfered. She reveals her ability to use the stone to reload her arrows, and the three youngsters decide to follow Zacharias, but he has already left. * Zacharias ponders his new friends, pleased that he has left them behind in relative safety. he encounters Samuel, who runs him through, thinking that he is his father. The three newcomers arrive too late, the distraught Samuel fends them off before offering medical aid. * Zacharias meets Herschel, the provider of the medical aid. * Paul doesn't get along with Herschel, and mistrusts Samuel for his violent actions. Herschel is the only druid either has ever met, and makes this point. The argument is interrupted by an undead attack. * Everyone tries to fend off the undead, Herschel and Paul make a good team until the arrival of a lich knocks Herschel's focus. Samuel uses this time to put on his armour and mount his horse, coming to the rescue at the last second. Paul reveals his martyr abilities. * Samuel pledges loyalty to Zacharias and the group plans a trip to the mainland. Herschel assists Tina with her mana burn, before explaining blood magic and martyr to the others. Samuel reveals a magical coach he has hidden away. * Terri and Zacharias go hunting, Terri can't keep up, but draws a wolf pack away from Zacharias, allowing him to gather many mushrooms. * Tina and Herschel attempt to clean and repair the coach, Herschel is in favour of doing it manually, but Tina uses magic and nukes the manual. * Paul trains with Samuel and loses repeatedly, being disarmed on every attack, so he decides to practice his own strategy for winning alone. * Samuel sits on the hill overlooking the castle, reminiscing. He tells the others of his story, and Zacharias decides to help him get into the castle so that he can find out what happened to his men and his charges. * Zacharias, Terri and Herschel go into the forest, having seen a plume of smoke from the back of the castle. Tina allows Samuel and Paul to save face (scared of the dark) by trying to blow up the gate, which turns out to be a magic door. It won't be opened by normal means, but does anyway. * The three in the forest casually defeat all obstacles, making bets about what they're fighting next and learning about each other's abilities. They rescue a small boy called Ronnie from a pack of zombie wolves. He insists that they save the princess, dragging Zacharias off. * Herschel converses with Terri about magic. * Ronnie helps the group into the castle, where they narrowly avoid being crushed by a golem cook. * Herschel worries about the kind of magic needed to animate golems. Zacharias and Ronnie go off to rescue the princess while the others try to open the castle gate, finding it open. * Renata changes out of her "Ronnie" disguise, intending to be rescued properly. Zacharias witnesses everything, and insists on Renata not wearing a cumbersome frilly dress when she would be quite capable of defending herself otherwise. The two form a connection. * After meeting up, the girls argue about who's better suited for Zacharias. A well dressed stone gentleman insists they visit the throne room. * The fight against Lord Madrass Jr. Renata is turned to stone, everyone works together but is seriously injured by a combination of petrified Paul, Samuel, Tina and noblewomen. Zacharias kills Lord Madrass, the ability of the stones to revive people is revealed. * The castle collapses, Samuel supports a ceiling to allow people to escape, Renata endangers herself trying to free him. Zacharias saves them both and reprimands them. * The party leaves for the port. While they camp, Samuel rides ahead to arrange things with Argus the ferryman. * Argus gets Samuel drunk, because he's heard that the High Kingdom is killing islanders, and doesn't want accompaniment on his own suicide mission, he equips his arm. The others arrive, looking for him and get into a fight. Tina learns about opposing elements the hard way, Argus loses to Paul, who uses the power of his stone to summon his sword, as well as an incredibly wily strategy which becomes a staple of Paul. * Argus joins the group and they make the crossing together. They then disguise Argus and make their way into Porthold. * They apply as mercenaries to the guild, but are recognised as islanders by Damian. It is not desirable for the town to be eradicated by dragons. * Damian and the guildmaster arrange defenses with Mark, Freida, and Nicolas, who actually leaves, uninterested, and other mercenaries, the Four Horsemen, and two unnamed assassins. As they are doing this, most of the heroes leave the guild. * Argus leaves early to check up on his wife and son, but only finds a gravestone. Tina, who has followed him, brings him to his senses after he loses control. They get into a fight with the four horsemen, but despite being outnumbered, superior abilities allow them to barely win. * Zacharias is dragged into an exploration expedition with Terri and Renata, which is interrupted by Damian, who shoots Zacharias, to little effect. He runs away, terrified, asks Freida for help, and activates his deadly machines. * They are next attacked by Mark, who's mind reading abilities clash with Zacharias's superior accuracy. After a short, frankly insane fight, Mark decides he wants to be on the side with the princess, joining without so much as a by your leave. * Paul clashes with Freida outside the guild, inflicting severe injuries, but recognising each other. An armless Paul cannot heal an impaled Freida. Paul screams for help. * Herschel has flashbacks of the time he first used dark magic, and brought a man back from the dead despite the rules of his art. The terrified cry of Paul awakens him, which is a terrible thing for the assassins in his room. * Herschel heals Freida and glues Paul's arm back on. It is revealed that Paul's severe burns as a child prevent him from feeling pain. The three, and Samuel, share information, about their homes being destroyed and leave the guild. * Damian runs into Nicolas as he's trying to deactivate his machines, having decided Paul isn't his enemy, and not wishing for further bloodshed. He runs into Nicolas several times, then encounters his machines, who decide his opinion means nothing. Nicolas and Damian both show that this isn't an issue. * Tina and Argus encounter machines, and Tina is almost melted. Damian and Nicolas save her. Nicolas learns of Paul's presence, and heads off to kill him, which upsets Tina. Damian reunites with his father. * Paul, Freida, Herschel and Samuel have a tight battle with a trio of machines. Herschel is almost killed, but rescued by Freida, who herself is rescued by Nicolas, who tries to attack Paul, who is rescued by Herschel. They reconcile. * Mark assists Zacharias and the girls in evading the robots, using a virtual Damian, then jumps on a roof with Terri to look for the others, but they are at the wrong end of the town. Terri asks him to seduce Renata, which unnerves him. * Antonius, commander of the Dragonguard appears before Zacharias and Renata. He recognises them for who they are, and divulges many important High Kingdom secrets to them before fatally injuring them both. Zacharias, fortunately for Antonius, is a good healer, and preserves them both, before falling unconscious as Terri and Mark arrive. * A pair of droll merchants run to their aid, though it takes a few times before Ethan decides to help them. Mention of Antonius doesn't phase Val, who is interested mainly in money. * The other, larger group, encounter more machines. The three swordsmen happen, which impresses Samuel much more than it should. Finding Ethan and Val wheeling their unconscious friends to their shop makes the whole experience ridiculous. * All twelve heroes convene in the Merchants' shop. They have a few days to recover, and decide to make an attack on Starbhold since the city will come under attack otherwise. Zacharias buys a great deal of equipment in his fathers name, and the group becomes very impressive for the finale/beginning. * The twelve heroes, and Ethan, who is planning to open a High Kingdom branch, reach the gate of Starbhold. Unsurprisingly, they aren't allowed through while the Dragonguard are stationed there. The guards are beaten, and Mark discovers that they have his powers, and he is a renegade whom the whole castle is alerted to. * They fend off a small group of Dragonguard, who return to their commander to relay their numbers. The walls of the castle move, separating the group once more. * Renata and Tina end up closest to Victor, in time to hear him complain about it being a quest and how it would be uncouth to kill the group, but that his men shouldn't give up their lives for that. Mark would eventually kill them. Victor eventually notices Renata sneaking around, and wins a magic battle against Tina, being intelligent, and the better mage, taking the pair prisoner until the conflict is resolved. * Mark and Paul ended up in the same place as Tina and Renata, but went in the opposite direction. Paul is improving rapidly, and holds his own against Ignatius's two subordinates. Ignatius defeats Mark easily, and pridefully tries to use his own power to dominate Mark, which obviously doesn't work. * Zacharias, Nicolas and Samuel, one has no eyes, one wears a scary face helm, and one is a foot too short, so they can't be read by any Dragonguards. On Zacharias's insistence, they agree to avoid killing, marking a change in him. Nicolas simply overheats each corridor they go down, leading to automatic victory, until he is forced to have an evenly matched fight with a weakened Ignatius, where it emerges that both are lieutenants. * Herschel, Damian, Freida and Argus, find themselves in an empty corridor far away from the fighting, so Herschel and Damian find a broom cupboard and use parallel magic to take control of the castle and fully disable everyone not called Victor or Ignatius. * Terri and Ethan are stuck alone, but she discovers that she can stun all Dragonguard. Not wishing to hurt her, they take them to Victor, where they have no choice but to watch as Victor directs his men. * Victor notices the water magic flooding the castle, and summons his earth dragon to ram a hole straight through the castle and trap Herschel, Damian, Argus and Freida beneath rubble. * Mark, who is now broken mentally and horrified by his own powers, and Paul, find a big hole with Victor and his dragon in it. Delicious... Mark goes into a berserker rage as he tries to eat Victor's dragon, Victor comes up with a simple strategy to stop him, but is hindered by Paul whom he has no choice but to disable, Victor then kills Mark, then is instantly curb-stomped by Paul using martyr. He has no choice but to let the group go, but that's fine because the renegade is dead and he wishes them well. * Herschel, against all of his better judgement, resurrects Mark, because losing would be unfair. He is forced to relive all of Mark's horrible backstory, memory loss, gladiatorial mayhem, the emergence of his powers, death, forced sex, more death, exploitation, and finally freedom at the hands of Nicolas and Freida. Mark awakens, cradled in the arms of a crying Herschel, with all of his own memories now intact, and his identity clear, though he hides this. * The group traverses a steep path through the mountains, discussing things, and learning more about each other. They are suddenly attacked by wind elementals, gargoyle like beasts who give the group a very tough fight, and knock Zacharias, Herschel and Damian into the abyss. They are saved in the nick of time by Gawain and his Lightningers. * Paul is thrilled to meet Gawain, but confused as to how he can be Zagorn's descendant. Nobody, not even Gawain is prepared to go and save the others, presumed dead, and said abyss being known to be dangerous. This is all being said as Mark, Nicolas, Freida, Argus and Terri all leap down, leaving Renata feeling worthless and the others foolish. * They find their friends frozen solid outside the opening to a cave. Magic means this isn't fatal, and Nicolas starts to thaw them when an ice dragon emerges, and horrifies him, his senses showing only the non-magical parts of the dragon. This dragon has no helpful human on top so Mark makes terribly quick work of it, which doesn't help him to feel more human at all, Gawain arrives late. * The Lightningers help the group into Highcliff, Herschel discusses necromancy with Gawain, who longs to have a dark mage join the group. They find themselves in a rebelling city filled with royal guards and ex-army members, hiding in their houses. They are unable to stand against the Dragonguard protecting the castle and get to the king, so the Lightningers leave to protect the peace rather than stir up death. * At the gate of the palace, they meet two Dragonguard. Mark explains that he's a renegade going to bring down the Dragontower. He, Herschel, Nicolas, Freida, Argus and Damian ride off, pursued by every soldier in the castle, leaving it entirely unguarded. * The palace is filled with gloomy servants and a pessimistic steward who have no reason to stop the six who remain. Upon entering the courtyard, there is an upheaval, inside and outside of the palace. The dead are rising. * Zacharias, Paul and Renata ascend to King Leon's chambers. Renata tries to treat with her father, but it is clear that he has gone mad. It doesn't take a lot of effort for Zacharias to subdue him. * Samuel and the twins desperately try to hold off the undead, eventually sealing the door shut. * King Leon begins to regain his sanity, and tries desperately to use Demise, even as he recognises his own face. This makes him madder, and extremely powerful, driving a spear through Zacharias and hurling him out of the window. Renata is understandably upset, and stabs him. * The other group manage to seal themselves inside the tower, and make their way to the top facing very little resistance. Something happens outside... and then they find themselves in the same room as Lord Antonius. He is horrified to see his son, and stalls the fight out, telling them secrets... our secrets. * Samuel tries desperately to rekindle his light magic abilities to heal Zacharias, but none of those on the ground can do anything. Tina gives him a fire empower in the hopes of making him strong enough to hold onto life for a while. * King Leon is still fine, and stronger, and more insane, and throws Renata off to stop her from stabbing him. Paul takes him on, and is held back by fiery punches. Paul lets Leon grab him by the face, and uses the same strategy as on Argus, with added Martyr and light imbue to remove his head. * The other arrive and mourn the king, and presumably Zacharias. King Leon is still fine, and an insane, magic, fire spitting, floating head controlling a skeleton body. Zacharias arrives to finish the whole entity off, hooray. * I come along and decapitate Antonius, disable everyone except Mark, who is an excellent specimen, so I allow him to try his strength. Nicolas is a surprise, but easily defeated, and Mark is shredded into tiny little pieces. Poor foolish dragons. * The next massive arc begins. * It has been one year, the High Kingdom has been getting back on its feet, Renata is more a figurehead, working with her steward to get the country running, but she doesn't enjoy herself, because the only members of the old crowd she can talk to freely are Terri, Argus and Freida. Zacharias is apprenticed to the groundskeeper, Paul, Tina, Samuel, Herschel and Damian leave for the Paladin's Mount, Freida and Argus are assigned to the castle guards and constantly busy, Nicolas is long gone and Mark is... She sneaks out of her room to see Zacharias, and both are pleased by this, but his year is up, and he leaves without another word. * In this act, Paul and his companions ascend the Paladin's mount, using light magic to defend Herschel against the dark hating light elementals, Valkyries. Paul reunites with his mother, and discovers that she is also Samuel's daughter. He trains with the Paladins for some time, befriending, and besting Siegfried and Charlemagne, while apprenticed to Lancelot, the light sage. He discovers that Herschel is Zagorn's son, Zacharias's brother, and Samuel refuses to say anything about this. In the meantime, Herschel, Tina and Damian enter the Restitution of the Magi to discover that they are rather overqualified, and are hired as teachers. Damian works on his personal project and Herschel is stuck with a bunch of dark using outcasts with nobody to teach them. At the end of the year, the Paladins and the Restitution have a small magic tournament, this to make sure there are no light mages that haven't been assigned to them. The fight is interesting, but not important to the plot. * Simultaneously, the dead make their move, disorganised though the sides are. Three paragons under the control of Eliza, Balor, a member of the ancient order of chaos lords, Crysta, an actual saint and martyr of the High Kingdom, and a warrior princess of a long lost tribe of the Old Kingdom (whose name I cannot remember), encounter Nicolas, bathing, and capture him since he is a member of the fireguard. They become friends, and have no desire to follow their orders, but Nicolas was hardly captured anyway, using them for entertainment and transport. They come across the dark sage, Mordred, in combat with the fire sage, the princess is killed, everyone else runs for it, but not before Nicolas gives the dark sage the fight of his life, since the fire sage is his teacher. * Category:AA